Immigration: Governors speed ahead where Hillary Clinton stumbled

Several governors with potential 2016 ambitions are speeding ahead with plans to give driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, nearly six years after the issue tripped up Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes.

Democratic Govs. Martin O’Malley of Maryland, Peter Shumlin of Vermont and John Hickenlooper of Colorado, and Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval of Nevada have all signed legislation granting driving privileges to at least some undocumented immigrants, part of a wave of seven states adopting similar laws so far this year. In an eighth state, Florida, lawmakers passed a bill by overwhelming margins only to see Republican Gov. Rick Scott veto it.

But the eagerness of prominent governors from both parties to embrace the legislation shows how much the politics of immigration has changed since October 2007, when Clinton’s fumbling of a debate question about a proposed driver’s license law became the first serious stumbling block in what had seemed her inevitable road to the White House.

Six years later, following two presidential elections in which Democrats won with overwhelming support from Hispanic voters, the political risks appear to have dimmed while governors and state legislators try to woo a Latino populace that will soon encompass one-third of the nation. A similar dynamic is at play in Congress, where the Senate has been consumed with an attempt at sweeping changes to federal immigration policy.

“You can’t take politics out of politics,” said Republican Utah state Sen. Curt Bramble, who wrote his state’s driver’s license law for undocumented immigrants and testified on behalf of the Nevada legislation. “On both sides of the aisle, elected officials want to be seen as doing something for the community.”

The moves also show that key states are once again a step ahead of Washington in being willing to tweak their approach to immigration. While states have little direct influence on immigration policy, laws on aspects like driver’s licenses give the governors a chance to weigh in.

“I think it’s [a] fair thing to say that as we move toward comprehensive immigration reform … that this is a first step,” Hickenlooper told The Denver Post earlier this month after signing his state’s measure. “You’re going to have a driver’s license that allows people to get to work, to make sure they have insurance.”

Another factor driving the change is an increasing number of Hispanic legislators, particularly in Nevada and Colorado. Nevada Senate Majority Leader Mo Denis, the chamber’s first Hispanic leader, repeatedly introduced driver’s license legislation only to watch it languish. That changed as the electorate sent more Latinos to Reno.

“In the past, we were just killing the anti-immigrant stuff,” said Denis, a Democrat. “But now, we were able to do something on the positive front.”

The political calculus was somewhat different in 2007, when outrage from conservative critics — stoked by talk radio and cable television — helped kill an immigration reform effort that had won support from both liberal Democrats and President George W. Bush.